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An affable person is someone pleasant, friendly, and easy to talk to.

If you are amenable to doing something, you willingly accept it without arguing.

If you are bellicose, you behave in an aggressive way and are likely to start an argument or fight.

A belligerent person or country is hostile, aggressive, very unfriendly, and prone to fight.

If you describe someone as having a bilious personality, you mean that she is highly irritable and bad tempered.

Someone who is boisterous is noisy, excitable, and full of boundless energy, and thus shows a lack of disciplined restraint at times.

Bonhomie is a friendly feeling among a group of people.

Someone who is cantankerous is bad-tempered and always finds things to complain about.

If you are complaisant, you are willing to please others and do what they want without complaining.

Conciliation is the process that is intended to end an argument between two groups of people.

A congenial person, place, or environment is pleasant, friendly, and enjoyable.

When someone is contentious, he is argumentative and likely to provoke a fight.

A man who is debonair wears fashionable clothes and is sophisticated, charming, friendly, and confident.

If you describe someone as demure, usually a young woman, you mean that she is quiet and shy and always behaves modestly.

Someone who is diffident is shy, does not want to draw notice to herself, and is lacking in self-confidence.

Dissension is a disagreement or conflict of opinion amongst a group of people.

Something that is divisive is likely to cause arguments between people.

A small group or issue which is factious is controversial and promotes strong disagreement or dissatisfaction within a larger group.

If someone is inimical, it means that he is unfriendly and will likely cause you harm.

An irascible person becomes angry very easily.

A person or group is nonpartisan when it does not support the ideas of any particular political party or group.

If someone is objective, she bases her opinions on facts rather than personal feelings or beliefs.

A polemic is a strong written or spoken statement that usually attacks or less often defends a particular idea, opinion, or belief.

When you refer to someone as a troglodyte, you disapprove of him because he tends to be lacking in social skills and is out of step with current times.

A truculent person is bad-tempered, easily annoyed, and likely to argue a lot.

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Adj.

pugnacious

puhg-NAY-shuhs

Context

Charlotte Marie is one pugnacious dog: she will start a fight over the smallest thing. One day an unlucky salesman came to the house where this pugnacious, combative dog lives. It’s a good thing she’s small, because she tore right out of the house and pugnaciously bit him on both ankles, barking and biting wildly. Her owner wishes the pugnacious Charlotte Marie wasn’t so ready to fight, although it does come in handy when unwanted visitors come to the door.

Memory Hook

ViciousPug The pugnaciouspug was so vicious it would bite everyone it met.

Examples

The winner of the inaugural Caesars Palace Grand Prix was Alan Jones, 35, a stocky, pugnacious Australian who had won the driving title last year.
—Sports Illustrated

The critical difference between the two: While Nadal is clearly galvanized by the concept of a rivalry, Federer can appear annoyed by the presence of such a bold and pugnacious challenger.
—Sports Illustrated

Brickman, 64, is a pugnacious, abrasive political conservative who is given to offering reporters red-meat sound bites savaging plaintiffs lawyers for alleged ethical abuses.
—CNN

That they are no longer at the bottom, politically at least, is embodied by the woman they call Behenji, or sister, a pugnacious, squat former schoolteacher who is the country’s first female Dalit chief minister.
—The New York Times

Word Ingredients

One who is pugnacious is “inclined to or abounding in” wanting to “fight.”

Word Theater

Tom and Jerry A pugnacious dog is after the cat again.

The panel shows a small video clip of either the word in actual use or a scene that represents the meaning of a word. This not only breaks up the monotony of studying words but also provides another avenue to strengthen word meaning. Enjoy!

Word Constellation

Click for an interactive map of this word

Related Words

bellicose ·

belligerent ·

bilious ·

boisterous ·

cantankerous ·

contentious ·

dissension ·

divisive ·

factious ·

inimical ·

irascible ·

polemic ·

troglodyte ·

truculent ·

affable ·

amenable ·

bonhomie ·

complaisant ·

conciliation ·

congenial ·

debonair ·

demure ·

diffident ·

nonpartisan ·

objective ·

Similar sense

Opposite sense

Word Variants

pugnacity
n

→

aggressiveness

The section lists important variants and alternate definitions of the headword. Knowing variants will often help you both remember and understand the word. Not all variants are listed - only the ones we think that are important for you to know.